HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
A huge thank-you to everyone who has booked the Ministry in 2011; and a massive HURRAH to our performers, designers, set-builders and talented suppliers.
We hope you all have a terrific Christmas and that Santa brings you everything you want…and we look forward to seeing you when our doors re-open for fun on Tuesday 3rd January 2012.
Lots of love and festive kisses, The Ministers xxxx
Minister Matt tries to convince Santa that he has been good.
THE PERFECT CHIMNEY
MOF and Father Christmas helped Mark Borkowski.do start conversation, grab headlines and make six year old’s Leo Park’s day today by assisting the Lower Mill Estate in their endeavours to test and construct the world’s first Santa friendly chimney.
The development of the chimney – which is undergoing practical tests in Gloucestershire – was inspired by young Leo after he told his Mum, Jade, that the chimney in the house they were having built was too small to accommodate Santa Claus.
Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxdtNIbHxv8
(client: Mark Borkowski.Do)
Santa is craned into position behind a delighted Leo Park (age 6)
GLENFIDDICH – SANTA SHUNS SHERRY
Forget mince pies and a drop of sherry, it’s a dram of whisky and a bacon sandwich that Santa hankers after on Christmas Eve.
Glenfiddich (the world’s most awarded single malt Scotch whisky) and The Ministry of Fun Santa School (Britain’s #1 provider of Santas) has polled over 100 Santa performers, revealing that Santa would be four times more likely to choose a drop of whisky over the traditional sherry. The survey uncovered the staggering reality that, when it comes to a Christmas tipple – and although Sherry is the most common drink left out for our festive friend – 40% of Santas admit Sherry’s their least favourite drink…with some even preferring Buck’s Fizz (17%) or a glass of milk (13%)!
So what will you leave out this Christmas…?
(client: Golin Harris)
"Cheers and ho ho ho!"
BA BUSINESS LIFE MAGAZINE
Don’t miss our fabulous centre spread in BA’s Business Life Magazine this December. The article focuses on the “business of Christmas” and Jonathan Root’s photo below features a couple of very enthusiastic elves with James Lovell, Director of MOF Santa School.
If you’re not planning on travelling business class this month, then don’t panic as the full article can be found here:
www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/Christmas-businesses-meet-the-merrymakers.html
MOF Santa School Director and two extremely jolly little helpers
SELFRIDGES WHITE CHRISTMAS
Shoppers at Selfridges on Oxford Street this Christmas – themed brilliant white for the festive season – should look out for MOF Performers portraying ballet dancers, opera singers and assorted mingling characters, too (see image below)…
(client: Selfridges)
REV
30 vicars took to the streets of London today to celebrate and publicise the release of “Rev.” (series one) on DVD.
According to The Times, the BAFTA-winning first series of “Rev.” – in which Tom Hollander plays sympathetic and very human vicar, Adam Smallbone – is a ‘bona fide masterpiece’. To promote this fact, our thirty dog-collared Ministers wore Tom Hollander masks.
This is what they got up to: http://youtu.be/6n-cfMWistY
(client: 2Entertain / BBC)
30 Revs make their way across Oxford Circus
CMI PINK PEOPLE
A team of 4 x pink Ministers were out and about in London today assisting managers with random acts of helpfulness such as carrying their briefcases, holding their umbrellas, opening doors etc etc. They were highlighting the support that the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) gives, championing British managers by professionalising the job of management, offering qualifications and training to help ‘raise management’s game’.
Each pink morph suit featured a QR code on the front so people could scan the performers and be immediately directed to the campaign’s website ( www.managers.org.uk ) . Genius! And if you’d like to see what the CMI pink people got up to on their adventures, then please negotiate your way to a selection of very short but hilarious videos…
Click here: http://www.youtube.com/user/cmimanagers
(client: Crazy Horse)
"May I carry your bags, madam?"
IT’S IN YOUR HANDS: ROADSHOW
Following our giant hand production in Covent Garden on Wednesday 2nd November (see below), a fully-briefed team of Ministers accompanied by healthcare professionals has just completed a 2-week tour across the UK raising awareness of Dupuytrens Disease.
The “Dupuytrens Disease: It’s In Your Hands” Roadshow provided us with 2-day residences in A-list shopping centres in London, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow; and if you missed the tour, but would like to know more about the condition, then please click here: www.itisinyourhands.co.uk
(client: Red Health / Red Consultancy)
Pfizer/Dupuytrens Roadshow
BIG HAND FOR PFIZER
200 x MOF Performers created a giant hand in Covent Garden (London) at 7am today to raise awareness of Dupuytrens Disease.
Dupuytrens Disease affects people’s hand and fingers and can gradually advance into a contracture whereby the affected finger permanently bends inwards into the palm of the hand, often interfering with a person’s ability to carry out everyday tasks such as driving, washing or shaking hands. In response to recent research, Pfizer Ltd – along with help from their communications agency Red Health – have developed the campaign ‘Dupuytren’s Disease: It Is In Your Hands’, to raise public awarenss of this condition.
The campaign launches in the UK this week; and this morning’s performance on the East Piazza at Covent Garden was filmed from overhead for a viral (see link below). Alongside this stunt, the ‘Dupuytren’s Disease: It Is In Your Hands’ roadshow is already on the road, with a Pfizer/MOF team scheduled to visit shopping centres in six cities nationwide over the next fortnight.
See viral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=106wEwFOgpQ
(client: Red Health / Red Consultancy)
200 Ministers and a 29m cherry picker go live in Covent Garden
CITY OF FRIENDS COMES TO TOWN
Norwegian TV production company CreaCon unveiled its flagship children’s show, “City of Friends,” in the UK at Brand Licensing Europe today. The CGI animated preschool series makes its U.K. broadcast debut on Milkshake! on Five tomorrow.
The show has already launched successfully in more than 140 territories around the world and, to celebrate its’ arrival in Britain, a lively team of 18 x Ministers took its characters Max, Ted and Elphie on an open top double-decker tour of London. Joined by Amy, Jen and Derek from Milkshake!, we took-in many of the West End’s most iconic sites – and here’s what happenned along the way…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5ghyb0S1U
(client: Creacon Entertainment)
City of Friends meets Milkshake!